If The Red Mist Didn't Cloud
by KatnisSorenRainbowDoom
Summary: The wolf mutts looked a lot like the fallen tributes; they had the same eyes and hair colour. We all know that the Capitol is ruthless, bloodthirsty and malicious, but could they really take someone's brains after their death and change their memories? This is the Mutts beginnings and their ends, and all in-between. A one-shot for now unless people want me to carry on with it!


**Hi readers! I hope you enjoy this one-shot. I will make it a proper story if people review saying that they want me to. I saw catching fire on Saturday! But I hope you enjoy it and remember to review! Story from Rue's PVO. P.S it does have a tiny spoiler from the film (about Rue's dad) but it is not something major and I only picked up on it because of my fascination with Rue and her family/character. But just a warning that if you are going to see the film, then see the film first, but it is only a tiny spoiler and not that big, just something I assumed from the book…**

* * *

My throat was dry, my voice cracking in my throat, but I cannot stop screaming. "Katniss! KATNISS!"

She is my only hope now. I try and move, to see if I can find a way out of this net, but I am met with a bolt of pain from my ankle. Even if I could get out of the net that secures me to the floor, I would not be able to run, climb, or even hide in the bushes at the edge of the clearing I am in. And even if I could hide, every tribute in earshot must know where I am by now. They would just search the area until the found me.

It is my own fault that I am in this net now. Our plan was for me to stay in the trees, not even leaving the branches to light the fires. All I had to do was throw a lit match down onto the wood until it caught fire, and then move onto the next. Katniss told me to make sure that I moved quickly so that the careers didn't catch me, but I dropped all of our supplies next to the first fire, after I lit it. I was in such a rush after the wood caught flame that I forgot to zip the backpack up again, resulting in everything falling to the floor next to the fire. After I had got everything back in the bag I was rushing. I climbed faster than normal but was I still in danger. When I got to the second fire I was careful to not drop anything but the wood was damp so it took me a while to light it. By the time I got to the clearing the adrenalin in my body was making rash decisions. I would have fallen out of a tree twice in my haste but I caught a branch just in time both times. I had to choose; run across the clearing or climb around. I took the most dangerous but fastest way. I should have known to always choose the safest way in the Hunger Games.

I hear rustling in front of me but can't see who it is. Thinking it is Katniss I whisper her name. But then I hear a deep laugh from the same direction and see a shadow emerging from the leaves to my left. At the same time I can hear a breathless "Rue!" comes from that same direction, and I struggle more than before, trying to alert her of my position on the forest floor. After scanning the area quickly she jogs over to me, slashing the net quickly with a dagger she had held in her belt. I scramble to my feet as fast as I can, ignoring the pain in my ankle. As we hug I realize that Katniss had tears sliding down her cheeks. I should have known that she wouldn't have let anything happen to me!

When we part I look behind her and gasp. I had completely forgotten about the career hiding in the bushes. After that everything happened so fast. They both readied and aimed their weapons, they released at the same time, they both hit at the same time. I see the district ones male tribute crumple to the floor with an arrow through his neck, I realise then that I am also falling to the floor, I look down and notice that there is a spear jutting out of my stomach. I realise then that the spear head has gone all the way through me, when I fall to the floor and roll onto my side. The worst thing is that I can't feel any pain, which means I am dead, no matter what, I am dead. The wound is too bad to survive it. Katniss is sobbing now, once I pulled the spear out of me the blood wouldn't let up. It bubbled and oozed through my fingers, hot and sluggish.

"Rue, Rue, can you hear me? You'll be okay, you will. You'll be okay!" she ends in a panicked sob. But everything seems muffled, like I am wrapped in cotton wool. The sun is shining directly in my eyes, but though it is blinding, it is peaceful, the ground beneath me soft. The mockingjays are chirping beautifully and I can smell the sweet scent of the wild flowers beside my head. My eyelids begin to droop and I know I don't have long left, so I ask for the only thing that I can ask for. "Sing, Katniss, sing me a song…"

I trail of into a fit of violent coughing, which ends with the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. When the coughing fit ends Katniss strokes my cheek and starts to sing…

_Deep in the meadow, under the willow_

_A bed of grass, a soft green pillow_

_Lay down your head, and close your eyes_

_And when they open, the sun will rise._

_Here it's safe, and here it's warm_

_Here the daisies guard you from every harm_

_Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true_

_Here is the place where I love you._

A sob escapes her but after a moment she continues, her voice as strong as ever.

_Deep in the meadow, hidden far away_

_A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray_

_Forget your woes and let your troubles lay_

_And when it's morning, they'll wash away._

_Here it's safe, and here it's warm_

_Here the daisies guard you from every harm_

_Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true_

_Here is the place where I love you._

_Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true_

_Here is the place where I. Love. You._

Her song is beautiful; it is all that I hear. Even the birds in the trees have stopped chirping their tunes to listen. I can't feel the ground beneath me, I feel as light as a feather. The pain from my ankle is gone. The light from the sun has intensified, making everything around me dark and opaque. I can't hear Katniss' song anymore, only the notes and tune of the song. I find that I am no longer weak, but feel as strong as I did only hours before. In front of me I see my youngest sister; Daffodil. She didn't survive the winter, but the worst and most saddening thing is that I see my father. He was alive when I left home, but here he is, _without_ the rest of my family. I take both of their outstretched hands, and we start floating towards the light…

* * *

The pain… It's all I know. I can't remember anything that has happened. My skull and eyes hurt. I want to scream, but my throat is too dry. An explosion of pain in my neck, another injection, I feel the hair growing all over my body. I can't open my eyes because of the bandage over my skull. My breathing is rough, the pain from the injection still resounding through my body. I can't tell how long I have been here, on this table, being tortured. All I know is that on a regular basis, people come to the steel table I am strapped to, and inject me with a fluid that speeds up growing. I don't know what, all I know is that they hurt, and with every injection my brain is flooded with the sight, sound and smell of a young, female, hunter, who I vaguely remember. She is associated with the pain, it is her fault.

Swoosh.

I tense up, knowing that someone has just entered the room. I can sense them beside me. I feel utterly defenceless, expecting another injection. But it never comes. Instead someone is taking the bandages off of my head. When they leave, I open my eyes, and see the bringer of pain. I leap from the table and circle her. She is just standing there; she doesn't pose a threat and reminds me of home. Just as I relax, remembering her as a friend I hear a voice in my head. _Attack._ I try and stop, I try to run away from Katniss, I even try and tell her to run. But instead I am on top of her, biting her throat out. Once the deed was done I sagged to the floor, miserable. I have just killed my friend, my ally. I can still taste her warm, sickly sweet blood on my lips, when a man enters the room.

"Follow. _Now_!"

He looks at me like I am a dog, but I do not move, my sadness threatening to drown me. He walks over to me and kicks me harshly in the ribs, before repeating his first instructions. My sadness quickly turns to anger I have never experienced before. Quick as a flash I am on my back feet, my jaws around his neck, and my claws deep in his abdomen. As he falls to the floor he coughs up blood. _Just like me when I died. _I feel the earlier expected needle in my back, this time making me yelp with pain. I fall to the floor in slow motion, my paws in front of me, showing my four inch long claws caked in blood. _What have I become? _Is my last thought before the drug takes my under.

* * *

My first sense to react is smell. The smell of anaesthetic and sterile cleaning fluids invades my nose, making it twitch. I open my eyes and close them instantly. The white walls and bright lights that I caught sight of blinded me as well as scorching my sensitive eyes. After a few minutes of letting my eyes adjust I can finally look around the room.

I am in a completely white room curled up in the centre. There is a window with people watching me through it to the wall in front of me, and a tall, wide mirror to my left; but I pay no attention to that, because of the seventeen wolves making their way over to me. I try to stand up to get away, when I see my paws. I look back at the wolves and see that they aren't advancing towards me, and then turn to look in the mirror.

I look exactly like the wolves behind me. I have a thick, long, dark brown coat. My ears are long and pointed, but my left ear flops halfway down like the runts from the mongrel litters back home. My eyes are the same hazel brown as before. But it is my paws that scare me. Not only are they giant compared to my new body, the claws on them must be at least four inches long, and so sharp that when I turned round they left marks on the marble floor. I open my mouth and see my deadly, jagged, perfectly white teeth. Suddenly I remember the events before I was knocked out. The feel of two people's life on my soul weighs me down. When I look back in the mirror, I see a monster, blood dripping from its fangs and claws, a murderous glint in its hazel eyes. I don't know where I am, I don't know if I am alive or dead. Al I know is that I am a killer, one of the monsters behind me and that I do not have control of my own actions. _You are mine! _I slump to the floor, defeated, when the wolves behind me start to howl. I don't even try to fight her. She takes me over to the others and we howl together. This time the mockingjays fall silent, in fear.

* * *

We got a new pack member today. Thresh. I howled in sadness when I saw his mutt. He is the biggest out of all of us, and the leader. Then they separated us. We all have a bond with each other after making contact. It means we can share thoughts without making a sound; the only downside is that our other halves can hear. They know everything about us, they control us, and they are stronger than us. But we still have our minds, a blessing and a curse. We remember who we killed, but we can still form friends, allies with the wolves around us. I now know that we are in a secret Hunger Games lab under the Capitol. We used to be people and I can remember everything about my old life, we can die, we all used to be in a fight to the death, but now we are all allies. But the shocking thing is that they said our souls are dead and gone, when we died in the Games who we were floated away, they let us float away, so that they could insert the evil in our brains. We are just a husk of who we used to be, just the memories tainted to create a deadly machine.

They take Glimmer and Clove away. I look around me and realise that they have taken all of the big or strong mutts, and left the smallest and weakest of us here. _Yip! Move. We got some blood to spill. And I want lots of it! _We all start to move towards the elevator mechanically. We couldn't stop if we were walking towards a wall of fire. Once all four of us are in the elevator the door closes behind us and we regain control of our limbs. Not that it is useful at all. There is no room for us to move, we are squashed into place. The elevator doesn't move for hours, letting us stay in this apprehensive mood, letting the tension in the air build until I feel as though I am able to chew it in my mouth. Just as we are all about to attack each other in annoyance the elevator starts to move upwards. She takes control of my limbs, letting me know that what we are about to see is going to make me want to dash. And it does. We are back in the arena, with Cato running towards us with a knife in his hands.

* * *

Instead of running away,like I would love to do, She propels me forward, ahead of the others, towards Cato. He sees me and runs in the opposite direction, towards the golden cornucopia. I keep up with him easily, but when I see Thresh on his hind legs, I sprint over to him. When I get there I copy the pose he is in, but find that my hind legs won't support me on their own. None of the others can do what Thresh does either. So instead She sends me after Peeta. I howl in excitement. The adrenalin pumping through my body only helps Her.

I see the Marvel Mutt fall to the floor, with an arrow through his eye. This makes Her stronger, and I seem to fly over the forest floor. I see Katniss and Cato on top of the cornucopia but Peeta is still trying to climb up it. I feel the agony and the pain inside of Peeta, when I bite his leg. I hear the screams of Peeta and Katniss and I know that I deserve an arrow through the eye. I take back control from her for half a second, but that is enough. Peeta is free of me. When all of them are up on the cornucopia I feel better. I can't hurt them. But then I see someone who can hurt them. Cato. He has Peeta in a headlock and a crazed look in his eyes.

Thresh tells us that he has been chasing Cato for two hours now so that the boy is practically dead on his feet. I can hear them arguing on top of the cornucopia and She makes me jump at the cornucopia over and over again, to try to get a grip so that I can attack them. I can smell the blood in the air and can taste it in my mouth, making Her even more frenzied. I see Peeta tap Cato's hand, and a split second later I see him topple to the floor, with an arrow in his hand, that have formally been choking Peeta to death. Instantly She makes me attack. One moment my claws are in his arm, the next my teeth around his foot. All the while I can hear his cries of pain. His blood matts the fur around my face but I can't stop. When we hear the canon I am ready to die. She has left me. I look up and see Katniss gasp in recognition of who I used to be. She points it out to Peeta and the sorrow in his eyes is unmistakeable. She returns, as a hole opens beside me, I look back at my former friends before jumping into the unknown.

* * *

I am back on the table, the needles being moved around the room regularly. The only difference is that this time the other mutts are with me. I can hear their howls of pain just as much as they can hear mine. When I open my eyes in between the injections I see a room that used to be white, splattered with blood. I see nurses, not there to help, but to inflict terrible amounts of pain. I see a stool beside my steel table with a tray containing on hundred needles. I can no longer hear Her, She is gone for good. But I can hear the other wolves, and their cries alone are enough to dampen my spirits. There are only six of us left. Many of us died in the arena, and every day I wish that I had received an arrow in the brain.

Finally one day the injections stop. They wheel us out of the lab test room and into a hovercraft. I know that there is only me, Glimmer, Clove, the crippled boy from three, the girl from four, and Thresh. But I can't hear three, four or Thresh. That is what scares me. My limbs are heavy, and when I try to communicate with the others I am met with a sort of barrier in their brains. Instead of my questions being answered they are pinged back to me, bringing a jolt of pain with them. With every message sent out the silence becomes more prominent, the pain more piercing. The ride is long and I am not safe. The table I am on is loose and keeps bashing into the wall, but the people no longer look after us like they did before we re-entered the arena. By the time the hovercraft lands, I am hungry, thirsty, dirty and weak. They wheel me out of the hovercraft and I finally see the others. Glimmer is still strapped to the table and Clove is gnashing her teeth at the scientists. I realise that I am free and rush over to them. Clove has cuts all over her body and looks as malnourished as me. Glimmer actually looks quite healthy. She has not been injured as much as clove, but then I see her crooked tail and back left leg that is bended in so many different directions that I can't believe it is still attached. After greeting them I turn around just in time to see the hovercraft lift off. It is soundless, but what it left behind speaks volumes.

We were left in a world bombed to oblivion by our ancestors. That then left us with a tyrant of a leader, who was so bad that the people had no choice but to rebel. His successor was even worse, starting a game where children kill children for the entertainment of select few. The people who had to endure the games also had to endure famine, natural disasters, peacekeepers, the common cold and much worse. Not only that but those in the capitol got bored of watching kids kill kids, so instead, got the brains of the dead tributes and put them in genetically engineered killing machines. After the mutts where finished with they were put through vast amounts of torture before they finally left us to die. But some of us might have been able to survive, so they killed, maimed, starved and beat us until we were husks of the former monsters they made us be. The hovercraft had left us dead and dying, one and the same. The body of every wolf that they made was dumped by the hovercraft. There are even three mutts that I never saw. If we had souls we would be going to hell for the next act She made me do. I go over to the healthiest, strongest mutt there was and began eating. My district partner and friend diminished to a meal that I would rather have never eaten. I would rather die of hunger than do this but She is in complete control. She will never let me die. I know that out of my other companions I have the most likely chance of living out of all of us.

So I take lead of my pack, and as we head off into the nuclear fog, to find whatever life there could ever be in a world destroyed by man, who was supposed to protect and serve it, I think of what life could have been like if cruelty had never been a part of human beings.

**BTW the spoiler was that I thought the Rue's dad was alive when she went to the HG's but when Katniss was on the tour he wasn't there… did anyone else see the film? Oh in my story I have it so that Thresh was killed and released in a matter of hours, but that he is the most complex of the mutts. I hope that was long enough for people, it was 9 pages in word so… Remember to review and tell me what you think!**


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